by Ulises Silva
Before you read any further, you should know that, if you’re a leprechaun, a unicorn, Latino, or Asian, you don’t exist.
At least, that’s what Hollywood says.
In Hollywood, it’s all about make-believe. After all, film studios make their money by making crazy stuff up—though I’m still not sure what made them think a Yogi Bear movie was the way to our wallets. As long as moviegoers fork over $12 to suspend disbelief, studios will keep making crazy stuff up—like alien invasions, intemperate fish, and anything Roland Emmerich looks at.
One day, they might even decide to make up Latinos and Asians (assuming someone doesn’t politely remind them that, uh, we already exist). In the meantime, they’ll gladly make do with white actors, and the confounding notion that Latinos and Asians don’t watch movies.
Case in point: Warner Bros.’ upcoming big-screen adaptation of the Japanese Anime classic, Akira. Despite Akira being a Japanese movie with Japanese lead characters in Neo-Tokyo (i.e., a Japanese city), Warner Bros. is reaching out to decidedly non-Japanese actors to play the lead roles. Because, clearly, the last movie based on Asian motifs cast with white actors did so well.
Can you spot the Japanese actor? Image Credit: IndiWire
Meanwhile, on the other side of the creative-liberty debate, Johnny Depp has opted not to play Pancho Villa in the upcoming biopic of a historical figure who killed white people, was hunted by white people, but was decidedly not white. Thankfully, Benicio Del Toro is rumored to be a replacement; for a moment, I thought it’d be Jack Black. But if anyone ever does a biopic on, say, Akira Kurosawa (he of Seven Samurai fame, a film that was itself whitewashed into The Magnificent Seven), they’ll probably cast Richard Gere.
Blackface minstrelsy seems alive and well thanks to Hollywood executives who don’t seem to think Latinos and Asians exist. Well, that’s an exaggeration. Latinos, Asians, and other ethnic groups exist in their minds—when they’re thinking of whom to cast as Nameless Janitor 3, Asexual Karate Master 6, and Arab Terrorist 142.
In the meantime, they’re ignoring the economic and social implications of this whitewashed approach to filmmaking. On the one hand, they’re ignoring the hard data that suggests Asians and especially Latinos have tremendous economic clout, making any argument that we can’t be marketed to utterly ludicrous. More importantly, they continue to tell young people of color that the best they can aspire to, especially as aspiring actors, is a nameless janitor, an asexual karate master, or a terrorist.
Fortunately, unlike half the characters we portray in films, we’re not silent. Once again, the Asian community is mobilizing to protest Akira, including Star Trek legend George Takei, who encouraged his Twitter followers to sign this petition. And we Latinos sure know how to speak out when we’re ticked off.
This is a good opportunity for the Latino community to support our Asian friends. All of us are being whitewashed from Hollywood, and maybe it’s time we collectively demonstrate how much these studios stand to lose if they insist we don’t exist.
Think of it this way: 15 years from now, when the Being Latino movie comes out, who do you want to play Lance Rios? A guy named Sanchez, or a guy named Smith?
To learn more about Ulises, visit Digital Decaf.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.
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About Being Latino Contributors
Love it!!!
LOVE this! being a Mexican-Japanese-Chinese descent myself, this is revolting being wiped out in Hollywood movies..this is like the movie Memoirs of a Geisha played by a Chinese actor, but that’s another story lol.
It’ll probably end up being Will Smith playing Lance, if your lucky. Actually, I’ve been saying similar things for years. It’s not that we don’t exist to them, it’s that they think we have a shallow talent pool and can’t play ourselves and open a movie wide at the same time. But, I ask, how can we do so if we’re given scant opportunity to carry a film and develop a real name and career. We have the talent, we just don’t have the profile of a household name so many filmmakers need to open wide for their product. Sometimes I can’t blame them for wanting the biggest name to head the lineup. As a producer that’s more than half the battle. In some cases the whole project depends upon a viable “Green lighter”. Unfortunately that leaves little for us to build on so that we have seasoned talent out there ready to take the reigns. We need mentors and real career guides to help emerging talent avoid the many pitfalls that end up cutting promising careers short.
I’ve seen them (rising stars) come and go with little difference between each generation that tries. We need to establish training centers and/or schools like the studios provided their own burgeoning screen stars. Then they might feel better about trusting their films to our authentic artists. There may very well be other factors at play but this angle is one where we can take responsibility for our community’s representation a little further.
This was great. Thanks Ulises.
According to historians, Francisco Villa had brown hair and fair skin. So he probably was a real Hispanic(someone of Spanish origin), not a fake Hispanic i.e. Mestizo or “Latino” whatever that means.